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Kosgei '10 is named Track Athlete of Year
Peter Kosgei's record-breaking indoor track season was rewarded with the NCAA Division III Indoor Track Athlete of the Year Award in March, along with a "Faces in the Crowd" appearance in Sports Illustrated. But with an even more emphatic performance in the recent outdoor season, Kosgei is no longer in the crowd at all. He's way out in front of it.
Dominating at distances from 800 to 5,000 meters, Kosgei '10 was named 2008 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year in May by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Kenya native finished first in both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run at the Division III outdoor championships at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh May 23 and 24. He defended his 2007 title in the steeplechase and broke his own facility record in the event with a time of 8:55.19. Those performances gave him four national titles in a single year.
Called by John Pitarresi '70, sportswriter and columnist for the Utica Observer-Dispatch, "with little question the most accomplished track athlete in Continental history," Kosgei also posted a school-record time of 8:43.78 in the steeplechase at the Penn Relays on April 24. That time is almost 21 seconds faster than anyone else in Division III and is one of the top 10 times in the entire NCAA this year. Additionally, Kosgei set a program record in the 5,000 with a time of 14:30.35 on May 8. He also set team records in the 800- and 1,500-meter runs this season.
Kosgei finished first in every race this spring but one — the steeplechase at the Penn Relays, where he was the sole Division III athlete and still finished second. "I was kind of nervous, but I let my mind control my body," he says. "I went out hard and did my best."
Kosgei won the 800 and the 1,500 at the New England Small College Athletic Conference championships held at Hamilton in April. He broke meet and facility records in the 800 with a time of 1:50.62. His winning time of 3:51.41 in the 1,500 established meet and facility records as well. Kosgei was one of two male athletes selected for the Sebasteanski Award as the most outstanding performer of the conference meet.
Asked about the key to balancing academic work and training, Kosgei — who began running competitively only in 2006, when he arrived in the United States — says, "The most important thing is sleep. You must get enough sleep to perform well academically and athletically. Otherwise, it's just going to crash.
Johnson, Tetreault top senior athletes
Capping a sports season for the ages, men's swimmer Todd Johnson '08 and women's lacrosse and soccer player Nicole Tetreault '08 received the 2008 Jack B. Riffle Awards at the College's senior varsity athlete awards dinner on May 22.
Johnson is the sixth men's swimmer selected to win the Riffle and the first since 2002. He earned All-America honors at the 2008 NCAA Division III men's swimming and diving championships, finishing in eighth place in the finals of the 100-yard backstroke. He received honorable mention All-America awards for the same event in 2006 and 2007. Johnson owns school records in the 50 and 100 backstroke.
Johnson made the New England Small College Athletic Conference all-conference team for the fourth straight year. He finished first in the 50 and 100 back at the 2008 NESCAC championships and set Middlebury College pool records in both events in the process. After the meet, he collected the Four-Year High Point Swimmer award. The award is given annually to the senior swimmer who accumulates the most team points at the NESCAC championships during his four-year career. Johnson still holds Liberty League championship meet record times in the 100 and 200 backstroke.
Tetreault is the eighth women's lacrosse player and the ninth women's soccer player honored at the Riffle dinner. She was one of three captains on the 2008 women's lacrosse team that won the first NCAA team championship in the College's history. She was selected the Liberty League Player of the Year in 2007 and 2008 and was named a First Team All-American last year. She is already a 2008 First Team All-Empire Region pick.
Tetreault ranks fourth on the program's all-time goals list with 138 and is fifth in career points with 182. While she did not play lacrosse in 2006 or soccer in 2005 due to a knee injury, Tetreault helped the lacrosse team to a record of 58-16 with two Liberty League tournament and regular season titles, two trips to the NCAA tournament and four postseason appearances during her career.
A two-time member of the Liberty League women's soccer all-star team, Tetreault finished her career with 16 goals and nine assists. She helped lead the 2007 team to the finest season in program history as Hamilton won a record 16 games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. She helped the program to a record of 47-14-6 with two Liberty League regular season titles and one tournament crown, two trips to the NCAA tournament and four postseason appearances during her career.
Tetreault also excels in the classroom. In June she was named to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-America Women's At-Large First Team — one of just 15 players so honored nationally — by the College Sports Information Directors of America. And she was one of 21 members of the Class of 2008 elected to the Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest honor society.
The Riffle Award has been presented annually since 1987 to the outstanding Hamilton male and female senior athlete. Jack Riffle graduated from Hamilton in 1950 and passed away in 1986. A group of his friends and associates established a memorial fund in his name because of his deep interest in Hamilton athletics.
Other key spring athletic honors:
Men's squash: Hamilton received the College Squash Association's prestigious Sloane Team Sportsmanship Trophy at a Feb. 16 banquet in Boston. The award is voted on by coaches and presented to the team displaying the highest level of sportsmanship during the season. Head Coach Jamie King is the first individual to receive the award both as a player (as captain of the 1984 Williams College team) and as a coach. Hamilton (10-11 overall) went 2-1 in the CSA's team championships and finished the season third in the Summers "C" Division bracket. The Continentals' final No. 19 ranking is the team's highest in five years.
Women's rowing: Four women's rowers were selected national scholar-athletes for the 2008 season by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association: Lizzie Collins '10 (French), Britt Freitag '08 (theatre), Sarah Henochowicz '08 (mathematics) and Anne Murphy '08 (history and Hispanic studies). Murphy was coxswain for Hamilton's second varsity eight that finished first at the Liberty League championships. Freitag was honored in 2007 as well. Student-athletes who make the list need a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 or better.
Men's golf: Brad Roche '11 was named to the 2008 NCAA Division III PING all-region team for the Northeast by the Golf Coaches Association of America. He also represented the Northeast region on the six-member Division III All-Freshman Team. Leading Hamilton with a stroke average of 76.86 for 21 rounds, Roche earned the 2007 NESCAC Rookie of the Year award and made the all-conference first team. The Continentals went on to finish second as a team at the NESCAC championship in April.
Three other men's golfers were named to the 2008 Cleveland Golf Division III All-America Scholar Team by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Dave Christie '09, Jeff Corbett '09 and Mike Hayes '08 are among 41 NCAA Division III men's golfers on the list. Hayes made the 2007 team as well. An individual must be a junior or senior academically and must have competed at least two full years at the collegiate level to be eligible for All-America scholar status. He must have a stroke average under 79.0 in Division III and maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of at least 3.20.
Women's track and field: Three athletes earned a spot on the 2008 New England Small College Athletic Conference all-conference team based on their performance at the NESCAC championship meet at Hamilton's Walter H. Pritchard Track April 26. Akilah Bond '09 (first, triple jump), Kary Pardy '08 (second, hammer throw) and Alexandra Americanos '10 (third, 100-meter dash) received all-conference recognition as they finished among the top three in their events.
Men's track and field: Three other athletes joined Peter Kosgei '10 on the 2008 NESCAC all-conference team based on their performance at the conference championships April 26: James Russell '09 (first, pole vault), Greg Fullman '09 (third, 400-meter hurdles) and Claudius Zorokong '08 (third, long jump). Russell, who holds the school record at 4.55 meters, won the pole vault for the third straight year.
Softball: Amber O'Connor '09 was selected to the 2008 NESCAC softball all-conference team. O'Connor, who was all-conference as a rookie in 2006, was placed on the second team. She tied for eighth place in the NESCAC with a .447 on-base percentage and tied for ninth with nine stolen bases. The catcher hit .378 and started all 27 games for Hamilton. She helped Hamilton to 12 victories — the most for the softball team since 1999.
Men's lacrosse: Marc Albu '08 and Karl Gruss '08 were selected to the 2008 Liberty League All-Star Team. Both Albu and Gruss made the honorable mention list. Each started all 14 games for the Continentals, who finished the year with a record of 6-8 overall and 1-5 in the league.
When spring break is more than a party
Born of a hurricane in 1993, the College's Alternative Spring Break marked its 15th year in March with a full-fledged volunteer outreach program in which students blazed trails in rural Tennessee, joined rebuilding projects on the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast and volunteered with needy families and refugees in Utica.
One of about 70 Hamilton students to participate this year, Kevin Rowe '10 spent a week in Biloxi, Miss., preserving live oaks damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "They are really important to the ecosystem of the coast and a first line of defense against strong winds," he told his hometown newspaper, the Grand Rapids, Mich., Cadence. Rowe also told the Cadence that the trip had provided a lesson in "race relations, power relations and wealth relations," noting, "It's astounding how far we still have to go in relief efforts." Rowe served as part of the Hands On Gulf Coast team, which numbered 10 Hamilton students among 150 college students from around the nation who worked on a variety of construction and conservation projects.
Four students stayed close to home for their spring break service, working at nonprofit agencies in Utica through the Urban Service Experience program. They volunteered at Thea Bowman House, JCTOD Outreach and Y-Girls, in addition to creating welcome baskets for new refugee families through the Refugee Center. According to Chrystal Pridemore, Hamilton's VISTA coordinator and Cornhill Outreach/Bonner Leader coordinator, "Providing extra hands to care for children ages 18 months to 6 years and after-school programs kept us busy, and conducting interviews at the JCTOD Outreach transitional housing program altered our lives.
"We interviewed four women who told us their stories of life before drugs, the process of getting addicted and life on drugs and then getting their lives back on track, overcoming impossible odds and regaining custody of their children," Pridemore said. "It was very inspiring, and the interview transcripts will be used by the agency to tell the story of what they do and how it makes a difference in women's and children's lives."
Other Alternative Spring Break efforts included:
Cumberland Trail, La Follette, Tenn.: Ten students helped build trails and perform maintenance along the Cumberland Trail, a Tennessee State Scenic Hiking Trail and state park that includes a corridor of more than 300 miles of trail.
Habitat for Humanity, John's Island, S.C.: Twelve students helped build a Habitat for Humanity house here, one of more than 230 homes the organization has raised in 30 years in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Habitat for Humanity International is an ecumenical Christian ministry dedicated to eliminating poverty housing.
Burgaw Elementary School, Wilmington, N.C.: Ten Hamilton students worked in this outreach program to help students with homework and participate in after-school activities.
Land Between the Lakes, Golden Pond, Ky.: Land Between the Lakes is a 170,000-acre national recreation area in Western Kentucky and Tennessee. Volunteers helped with the maintenance of an 1850s working farm by doing repairs and building fences.
Habitat for Humanity, Thibodaux, La.: Students helped build another house with the Bayou Area Habitat for Humanity, working side-by-side with the family who will live in the house.
From its start as a relief response by the Hamilton Action Volunteer Outreach Coalition and 20 students after Hurricane Andrew ravaged Miami in 1993, Alternative Spring Break has evolved into a separate student organization that runs the program and its six trips each year with Hamilton's chaplaincy.
It's 2008; every day is Earth Day
No longer limited to either Earth Day or convention, environmental awareness and action are taking on a variety of innovative forms around the College, a reminder that sustainability is both a habit of mind and a community effort. The spring saw initiatives and events ranging from the traditional and agrarian (a community garden) to the political and technological (a concert and film devoted to environmental action and awareness of global warming).
Ham's Cram & Scram: It was the College's answer to an age-old campus dilemma: What to do with all the furniture, appliances, clothing, bedding, even food left behind by students during the May exodus? "We average about 75 to 80 tons of waste every month, and that number jumps to around 140 tons in May," says Terry Hawkridge, assistant director of grounds, horticulture and arboretum. The solution: Recycle and reuse.
Hawkridge, along with Brian Hansen, director of environmental protection, safety and sustainability, had wanted to initiate Ham's Cram & Scram, an annual year-end recycling effort, for some time but had to work out staffing and other details. With the recycling effort, the May waste processed by the College fell from 140 tons to just more than 100 tons, with a savings of more than $2,500, Hawkridge said.
Using Emerson Literary Society as a base of operations, 30 students helped collect and sort recyclable and reusable items from residence halls as the semester ended. Clothing went to the Salvation Army, bedding to the Stevens-Swan Humane Society and food to the Clark Mills Food Pantry. Books, paper and containers were recycled by the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority.
Reusable items such as furniture and appliances will be stored over the summer and sold at a tent sale on campus Aug. 26-27.
Low Carbon Diet Day: Food service provider Bon Appétit declared Earth Day, April 22, Low Carbon Diet Day for lunch at campus dining halls. That meant purchasing all meats and vegetables from North America, reducing the amount of beef and cheese served, eliminating air-freighted seafood, decreasing purchases of tropical fruits and reducing use of packaging and disposable containers.
The energy used to grow, store, transport and process food, by some estimates, produces about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Beef and cheese are particularly "carbon intensive," and even foods such as lettuce and tomatoes can be when they have to be shipped long distances. "Our challenge is to make students understand what we're doing for one meal, on this day, and how our food choices can have a great impact on the environment," Bon Appétit General Manager Pat Raynard said of Low Carbon Diet Day.
The day followed last September's Eat Local Challenge, a campus-wide picnic where all the food came from local producers. Bon Appétit also offers an online low carbon diet calculator at www.eatlowcarbon.org.
Community Farm Garden: You can't eat much more locally than this: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and lettuce from the College's own 3/4-acre garden, off Campus Road near the Ferguson parking lot. Proposed last fall by Andrew Pape '10, Corinne Bancroft '10, Professor of Biology David Gapp and Associate Professor of German and Russian Languages and Literatures Frank Sciacca, the garden is devoted to "furthering the value of sustainability by utilizing sustainable and organic techniques and offering an outdoor classroom for students experientially to learn these values."
The garden has been funded and supported variously by the President's Office, food service provider Bon Appétit, the Physical Plant and individual members of the Hamilton community. Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Peter Cannavo and Reuben Haag, executive chef of Bon Appétit, have served as advisors to the project. The garden is also the site of the Heritage Garden, maintained by Gapp, Sciacca and Associate Professor of English Naomi Guttman and the students in their Food for Thought seminar. The Heritage Garden comprises crops and employs cultivation techniques in use in 1812.
Plantings for the future: The Hamilton College Arboretum, joined by Hamilton's Environmental Action Group, planted a white pine between Kirkland Residence Hall and Minor Theater to mark Arbor Day April 25. The Arboretum Society also participated in a tree planting ceremony at Clinton Elementary School, with members of the Hamilton grounds staff helping students. A final tree planting came May 24, on the quad between South Residence Hall and the Bristol Center, to mark the success of the Class of 2008 Environmental Endowment Fund.
— Contributing: Bob Healy, Molly Kane '09, Andrew Pape '10, Sports Information Director Jim Taylor
